 Azica Records, Inc.
Recording Artist
Profile...
David Leisner
solo guitar
David Leisner is one of
the top American classical guitarists. His superb musicianship
and provocative programming have been applauded by audiences and
critics around the world. He has been acclaimed as "a
triple-threat performer" by The New York Times and a
"serious, exploratory and imaginative musician" by The
Boston Globe. A top prize-winner in the 1975 Toronto and 1981
Geneva International Guitar Competitions, he now performs
regularly in solo and chamber music recitals on stage, radio and
television throughout the United States and abroad.
Leisner's recent seasons
were highlighted by an innovative three-concert series at the
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City (which
included the first all-Bach guitar recital in NY's history) a Far
East debut in Manila, and appearances on concert series in
Boston's Gardner Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Spivey Hall
in Atlanta, and the Augustine Guitar Series in New York City.
Other notable solo performances took place in Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Columbus, Winston-Salem, Phoenix, Tucson
and Los Angeles.
Leisner has been
featured as soloist with a number of fine orchestras, including
the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Australian Chamber
Orchestra, the New York Chamber Ensemble and the Chamber
Orchestra of New England. In great demand as a chamber musician,
he has been a regular performer at the Bowdoin, Bravo! Colorado
and Angel Fire Music Festivals, performing with baritone Kurt Ollmann, violinist Ida
Kavafian, and cellist Peter Wiley, among
others. The 1997-98 season included his debut with the Boston
Chamber Music Society and the founding of a new duo with flutist
Eugenia Zukerman, which has already delighted audiences in New
Mexico, Colorado and Maine.
Celebrated for expanding
the guitar repertoire, Leisner has introduced many important new
works and has been a tireless advocate for neglected gems of the
past. Leisner has premiered works by some of the most important
composers of our day, including Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Philip
Glass, Richard Rodney Bennett and Peter Sculthorpe. He was also a
pioneer in the rediscovery of Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-1856),
whose music he recorded on The Viennese Guitar for the Titanic
label and edited for publication by Theodore Presser Company.
Leisner's new guitar arrangements of Bach's unaccompanied flute
Partita and Third Cello Suite have also been issued by Presser.
Etcetera Records released his recording of Ned Rorem's Romeo and
Juliet with Boston Symphony Orchestra flutist Fenwick Smith.
Also a highly respected
composer, Leisner is noted for the emotional and dramatic power
of his music. His Dances in the Madhouse, in its original version
for violin and guitar and as an arrangement for orchestra, has
received well over 100 performances. Leisner's works have been
performed worldwide by such eminent artists as Sanford Sylvan,
Paul Sperry, Robert Osborne, Juliana Gondek, Susan Narucki,
D'Anna Fortunato, Warren Jones, Benjamin Verdery, the Los Angeles
Guitar Quartet, the Saturday Brass Quintet, the Eastman
Percussion Ensemble and orchestras coast to coast. Works
currently available on CD are on the Newport Classic, Dorian,
Centaur, Signum and Athena labels. Recent commissions and
premieres include Embrace of Peace for the Fairfield (CT)
Orchestra, described by The Westport News as reflecting "a
brilliant intellect in combination with brilliant
sensitivity" and Battlefield Requiem for solo cellist
Laurence Lesser and the New England Conservatory Percussion
Ensemble. He has received composition grants from the Aaron
Copland Fund for Music, the American Music Center, the Alice M.
Ditson Fund, the New England Foundation for the Arts and Meet the
Composer.
A revered and
distinguished teacher as well, Leisner is currently on the
faculties of the New England Conservatory and the Manhattan
School of Music. His lively master classes have been featured at
such institutions as Yale University, U.S.C., the Cleveland and
Peabody Institutes of Music and the San Francisco and Cincinnati
Conservatories. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and
studied guitar with John Duarte, David Starobin and Angelo Gilardino; composition with Richard Winslow, Virgil Thomson,
Charles Turner and David Del Tredici.
Azica Release
JS Bach Solo Guitar
ACD-71210
Villa-Lobos ACD-71211
This and all other Azica classical releases are
featured in the Classical Library.
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